


A Dirty River

by MikazukiMunechika305



Series: Keyakizaka46 Majisuka Gakuen AU [1]
Category: Keyakizaka46 (Band), Majisuka Gakuen
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2019-07-04 16:06:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15844722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MikazukiMunechika305/pseuds/MikazukiMunechika305
Summary: While the yankees were busy building alliances with each other, the Student Council tried to completely restructure Majisuka Gakuen. The girls found themselves swimming in a dirty river of fights, lies, rumors, and relationships.There will be multiple chapters that happen around the same time, but are told from different characters' points of views.





	1. 1 (The Cool)

It was on her first day at Majisuka Gakuen, while she was on the train to school, when it happened.

Because most of the seats were full, Manaka was standing on the aisle with her headphones placed securely over her ears to help her ignore the surroundings. Manaka didn't like taking the train too much, but there was not much else she could do with having to arrive at school in time and both of her parents having to leave the house so early that they couldn't take her to school.

She was tapping her fingers against the metal pole she was holding onto in the rhythm of her music, her eyes half-closed so she could still read the sign announcing the next stop, when Manaka suddenly felt something cold, accompanied by a slight pain, on her upper thigh.

She had heard that there had been more cases of perverts cutting high school girls' skirts recently, but she hadn't expected to be one of the victims.

Immediately, Manaka's hand shot out to grab a man's wrist. It was right then that the train stopped at the station she had to get off at, so she dragged him out of the train along with her, planning to get her revenge on him once they were outside; fights on the train were another thing she was not very fond of.

The man seemed to misunderstand her, for Manaka thought she could hear faint chuckling from behind her.

As soon as she'd stepped out of the train, Manaka slammed the offender against the nearest wall and stepped down on his foot hard before rising to the tips of her toes in order to be able to look him in the eyes.

"Never," she drawled lowly, giving him her best glare—a glare that had made other yankees run away in fear if they'd gotten to feel her fists before. " _Never_  do that again. Not to me, and not to anyone else."

But the man was still laughing. "So you like it rough, huh?" he said, raising his hand as if to caress Manaka's face.

She slapped his hand away and punched him, furious. During the process of that, her headphones slipped off her ears until they hang around her neck, and with a grin, the man grabbed the cable that connected the headphones to Manaka's phone and pulled at it.

Manaka gasped when she was pulled forward; she had to raise her hand and lean on the wall quickly to avoid her head hitting that of the offender.

"Aww," the man teased her, and then, as if he wasn't feeling any pain from her punch at all, he grabbed Manaka's shoulder and turned them around so she was the one being pinned to the wall.

Manaka was strong and mostly fearless; she'd been a yankee for over a year, so she'd beaten up quite a few people already. But her opponents had always been people around her age, not men who were thirty years older than her. Not men who were that much physically stronger than her and whose touch felt so disgusting that she seriously felt the need to take a long, hot shower right now.

That was why she got slightly—just slightly—nervous, now that he had her at his mercy. Manaka kicked him again and tried to push him off, but not only was the man taller than her; he also barely seemed to feel any pain.

Either that, or he liked the pain.

That thought made Manaka shudder in disgust, and she slowly realized that even her struggles to free herself weren't really getting her anywhere. She already felt the offender's hand sneaking under her shirt when suddenly, he collapsed.

Manaka's eyes widened when beside him, she recognized a girl wearing the same uniform as her—Majisuka Jogakuen's uniform. She was still holding out her fist which indicated that she had just done what Manaka had not been able to achieve—she had punched the man hard enough to knock him out.

For only a moment, it was silent between them. Then, the girl took off the sweater she was wearing above her uniform's blouse and offered it to Manaka. "Here."

"E-eh?"

"He cut your skirt, right?" There was a hint of annoyance in the girl's voice, but she didn't take her sweater back and instead thrusted it towards Manaka again. "Tie it around your waist so people won't see the cut."

Slowly, Manaka took the sweater and did as the girl had said. "...thanks."

The girl shook her head slightly as if to say 'Don't thank me.' Then, she turned away and left the scene. After a quick glance at the passed-out man, and after kicking his face hard enough to make his nose break for revenge, Manaka followed the girl who had saved her.

On their way to school, they didn't talk. They didn't even talk when they found themselves entering the same classroom and being directed to sit in the same corner of the room by a nervous woman who seemed to be their teacher. Manaka sat right behind the silent girl and stared at her back, not even listening when their teacher tried to get the chattering students to calm down.

Someone threw a book against the board and the teacher flinched with a whimper of fear before fleeing from the classroom.

Manaka sighed and put her headphones back over her ears, switching on the music and closing her eyes. When the bell rang, signaling the beginning of the break (although none of the students really needed a break since they hadn't been doing anything anyways), Manaka got up to head to the roof of the school building. She was just about to sit down in a somewhat shadowy place when someone pushed her aside.

"Hey, this is my spot, so move away."

Rolling her eyes, Manaka took off her headphones. "I believe I can sit wherever I want."

"First-years should just do as they're told," the older girl scowled and lunged out to punch Manaka.

Manaka managed to dodge the hit and land a kick on the other girl's shin. Moving swiftly, she punched the older girl hard enough to knock her back against the fence around the roof. "Can I sit here now or do you want to continue?"

With a yell, the girl came at her again, but Manaka socked her on the jaw, sending her flying back against the fence once more. As she sat down, she noticed the girl who had saved her earlier standing nearby and nodding to herself. "Not bad."

Manaka inclined her head slightly to show that she acknowledged the compliment.

After that, there was more silence between them. For the rest of the day, they didn't talk again, but Manaka was able to watch her new classmate beat up two taller first-year students when they refused to let her leave the classroom without leaving her money with them.

That was when she realized that there was something about this girl that she liked. Manaka couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was; whether it was her attitude, or just the fact that she had saved Manaka in the morning (Manaka was still wearing the girl's sweater tied around her waist to cover the cut in her skirt). But it was there, and Manaka silently hoped they'd get to talk to each other sometime.

* * *

 

On her way back home and on her way to school in the next morning, nothing happened—but this time, Manaka noticed the girl who had saved her taking the same train as her. While they were on the train to school, Manaka kept an eye on the girl as inconspicuously as possible.

The girl had short hair, although it was a bit longer than Manaka's. She was about the same height as Manaka herself and, this time, wore her school uniform in a relatively proper way since she'd given her sweater to Manaka the day before. The girl's face was pretty. It exuded a somewhat calm aura, and if Manaka hadn't seen her beat up people on the previous day, she wouldn't have expected this girl to be a yankee.

The train stopped, and just as Manaka finished her thought, the girl walked past her towards the door, nearly running into Manaka. "I don't know what you're thinking, but you should get off the train now," she said coolly before getting off the train.

Manaka simply stared at her for a split second, then she hurriedly followed the girl, managing to get off the train just before its doors closed again. "Wait!"

The girl stopped in her tracks, but didn't show any kind of other reaction.

Manaka took the sweater out of her bag and held it out for the other girl. "Here, your sweater." And after a moment of reluctance, she added, "...thanks for yesterday."

"I already said you shouldn't thank me." The girl took her sweater and tied it around her own hips. "...are you okay?"

"Because of yesterday, you mean? Yeah, I'm fine. No need to worry."

"I'm not worried."

Manaka snorted briefly. "Sure."

They walked a few steps in silence, until Manaka spoke up again. "I'm Shida Manaka, by the way."

"Watanabe Risa."

"Why did you help me yesterday?"

Risa remained silent for a bit; either she was seriously thinking about an answer (which Manaka doubted) or, being the yankee she was, she just didn't want to answer. Despite that, Manaka soon got an answer, after all.

"Guess I couldn't let something like that happen to another first-year on her first day at our new school."

Manaka nodded slowly; she'd probably have done the same thing. Even if they were yankees, or maybe  _because_  they were yankees, they should stick together in a situation like this-at least that was what she thought.

As they were walking, Manaka felt Risa glance at her occasionally as if she was expecting something, so she spoke up again. "Is there something you want?"

Risa just continued looking at her, a little quizzically now, but then she shook her head. "Why would I want anything from you?"

"You keep looking at me."

"...you weren't bad yesterday, when you were fighting on the roof."

"You weren't, either."

A few more seconds of silence passed and Manaka was just about to say something when a few girls stepped in front of them.

They were carrying items like metal poles or baseball bats and their uniforms were grey, so it was obvious that they didn't belong to Majisuka Gakuen; however, that was all Manaka could tell from looking at them. Next to her, Risa tensed up.

"Who are they?" Manaka mumbled under her breath, wondering if she had missed something important.

Apparently, she had.

"Now, would you look at this. Two Majijo students in our territory," one of the girls spoke up.

"Yabakune," Risa said, not clarifying whether she was addressing the girls in front of them or simply replying to Manaka's question. "What do you want?"

The girls in grey looked at each other before one of them started chuckling. "What we want? Isn't that supposed to be our question? After all, you invaded our territory... ah, I see." Their leader smiled a little while the others started forming a circle around Risa and Manaka. "You must be first-years, so you probably don't know where your own territory ends yet."

Risa reached for Manaka's wrist and pulled her behind her so their backs touched. "Watch my back," she muttered through gritted teeth before a small smile spread on her lips and she turned her attention back to the Yabakune girls. "Sorry, but you don't look much older than a first-year either. Must be nice to have senpais who tell you about all this 'territory' stuff on the first day of school."

Yabakune's leader furrowed her eyebrows in irritation. "If you apologize for that comment, we might consider letting you off the hook-"

"Not happening." This time, it was Manaka who cut in. "We didn't do anything to apologize for."

"Let's crush them." The Yabakune girl's voice suddenly was cold as ice, and the other five closed the circle around the Majisuka students. They were clapping their weapons into their hands and finally one of them lunged out with a bat, aiming for Risa's side.

As Risa moved to dodge the hit, Manaka leaped forward and pushed the girl back, trying to break through the girls' circle. She failed at that because the other Yabakune girls immediately moved in even closer, but at least Manaka managed to yank the bat from her opponent's hand and, using that momentum, push the girl further back.

Risa, meanwhile, placed a well-aimed kick on the leader's stomach, making her gasp in pain.

"Okay, now you've done it." The leader moved towards Risa and punched her, and Risa just managed to dodge the hit. In return for that, she had to take a kick to her shin that made her groan quietly.

Risa punched the girl again, and she heard a satisfying  _crack_  when her fist connected with the leader's jaw.

Next to her, Manaka took a painful-looking hit from a metal bat, but she grabbed the bat and tried to yank it from her opponent's hands.

Their fight went on for a bit, until Yabakune's leader suddenly called her companions back with the reason that they had a meeting at their school to attend. They were gone as fast as they'd appeared.

Breathing heavily, Manaka and Risa leaned against each other and watched them leave.

"So... what was this about?" Manaka asked, a bit of pain audible in her voice, as she rubbed her ribs where she'd been hit with the metal bat.

Risa turned her head to look at her in slight disbelief. "Did you seriously not know anything about Majijo when you enrolled?"

"I know that it's a yankee school," Manaka defended herself, and Risa sighed.

"Yabakune is our rival," she explained. "They've been for a long time."

Manaka gave her a nod to show that she understood, and then brushed a bit of dirt off her uniform. "So we won't get in trouble for beating them up."

"If anything, we'll get in trouble for getting beaten up by them."

Risa was right; they looked rather roughed up now, but at least, Manaka told herself, the Yabakune girls had looked the same way. "I think we did pretty well, though," she said. "I mean, we barely know each other, and we're not both dead just yet."

Risa raised an eyebrow and turned away with a slight shrug. "If you say so. And now let's go."

Manaka nodded and followed the other girl in silence.

* * *

 

From then on, the two of them started spending more time with each other. They didn't talk much at first, but as time passed, they got closer to each other. People started calling them  _The Cool_  because of their looks and rumors about them started spreading.

When they fought other yankees, whether from their own school or from Yabakune, they usually ended up fighting side by side, and after a few weeks, they had both become an inseparable presence for each other. Whenever Manaka wasn't at school, Risa would become grumpy and beat up even more people than usual, and if Risa wasn't at school for a day, Manaka was mostly silent and ignored everyone.

Sometimes, they skipped school together. There was one day where they felt like doing girly things, so they went shopping, but in the end, they got discovered by some Yabakune girls which unfortunately resulted in Risa getting her dominant arm broken.

Manaka talked her into going to the hospital because even if they were yankees, she knew that an injury this heavy should not be left untreated.

When Risa left the doctor's room with her arm in a cast and a sling, there was a deep scowl on the older girl's face.

"How did it go?"

Risa snorted briefly, gesturing at her injured arm. "Can't you see that?"

"Sorry, I should've tried to take that hit—" Manaka was referring to the fact that Risa's arm had been hit by a metal bat, but the older girl just rolled her eyes.

"Will you shut up? If you'd taken that hit for me, then I'd have to deal with you being all whiny because you can't use your arm anymore."

"And you're not going to be whiny?" Manaka raised an eyebrow, moving away with a laugh when Risa tried to slap her back with her good hand. "Fine, I'll stop." Then, her eyes fell on the cast around Risa's arm again and she realized something. "But that's your dominant arm, right?"

Risa's expression turned a bit more sour when she was reminded of that fact. "...yeah."

A tiny, teasing smirk spread on Manaka's lips. "Don't worry, I'll protect you until you're back to full health."

She actually made sure to keep that promise. There were a few people who tried to take advantage of Risa being hurt, but Manaka was always by her friend's side, and in addition to that, Risa still didn't hesitate to defend herself using her legs and her other arm.

It was a week before Risa was supposed to go back to the hospital so the doctor could take the cast off her arm, and the two of them were sitting on the school's roof, having lunch together.

"Hey, Risa," Manaka suddenly spoke up. "We've never really talked about this, but I guess by now we pretty much belong to the strongest people of this school, don't you think?"

Risa tilted her head to the side slightly, a sign for her friend to continue talking.

"So I was thinking... maybe we should aim for Rappappa sometime." Manaka had been considering this for a while. She'd always been interested in joining the Wind Instrument Club, but by now she had come to the conclusion that it wouldn't be any fun without Risa.

"Rappappa? Isn't that too much work?" Risa raised an eyebrow, giving her friend a sidelong glance. "But I guess it'd be good for our reputations, huh."

Manaka nodded in agreement. "So, are we gonna do it?"

Risa remained silent for a moment longer, but then she nodded. "Not right now, though. We should probably keep an eye on them for a while so we can find out how to defeat them."

Manaka nodded slightly. "Good idea, let's do that then."

They ate the rest of their lunch in silence, simply enjoying each other's presence.


	2. 1 (Watanabe Rika)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is inspired by the two episodes of the AKB Watashitachi no Monogatari Drama "JK Lady Yuuka's Adventure," in which Akane is a yankee and Berika is her underling.

When Watanabe Rika first stepped onto the schoolyard of Majisuka Gakuen, she had to stop and take in all the sensations for a moment. The school had a much darker aura than she had imagined; not like she'd had any real expectations. She had only enrolled here because her parents didn't have enough money to send her to a better school, and she'd obliviously believed them when they'd said everything would be fine. Rika had never regretted anything in her life this much. Even from only seeing the school building, she already felt scared, and the fact that there were already students fighting each other on the schoolyard didn't make her situation any better.

"Hey," a cold voice spoke up behind her. "Get out of my way, first-year."

Rika whimpered quietly and stumbled aside obediently, looking away. The next three years were going to be hell for her, she could tell that already. "But still," she whispered to herself, clenching her hands to fists, "I have to do my best."

Even once she entered the school building, it didn't get any better. There were still students fighting and glaring at her everywhere, so on her way to the classroom, Rika stared at the floor and tried to avoid everyone else as much as she could. She thought she was doing a pretty good job at that—until she accidentally bumped into someone. "I'm sorry—" she started, her voice barely audible like it always was, but the other girl only stared at her, eyebrows furrowed in slight irritation.

"Just look where you're going next time," she scoffed coolly.

Rika nodded hurriedly, still keeping her head low, and entered the classroom. Once she'd sat down on an empty chair, she took her treasure, a blue whale shark plushie named Aoko, out of her bag and hugged it to her chest tightly.

Around her, the other students (among them was the girl she'd bumped into just now, but Rika didn't notice that) laughed at her and made comments along the lines of  _Which high schooler brings their stupid plushie to school?_  and  _She must be really stupid to think she'd survive here by behaving like this. She doesn't even look like she can fight._

Rika curled up on her chair a bit and buried her face in Aoko's body. At least the presence of her beloved plushie made her feel a little more at ease, but she still absolutely wasn't feeling comfortable in this class. Like this, she waited... and waited... and waited, but no teacher was coming to their classroom. That was when Rika realized that the teachers, if there were any at all, were probably just as scared of the other students as she was.

Finally, the bell rang, signaling the beginning of the break. Rika got up from her chair, still holding onto Aoko, and was about to head out of the room because she wanted to find a quiet place to eat her bento at when she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, what's your name?" she heard a voice from behind her.

Rika flinched, slowly turning around but keeping her head low. "W-Watanabe Rika."

"Watanabe, huh. See, you don't look like you have anything else to do, so why don't you go and buy us some food?" The girl's grip on Rika's shoulder turned painfully tight, but Rika still shook her head hesitantly.

"I don't want to..."

The three girls closed in on her. "You don't want to? Well, too bad we don't care." The girl who seemed to be the small group's leader snatched Aoko from Rika's hand, holding the stuffed animal just out of her reach. "Go and buy us food if you want this useless thing back."

Rika felt her eyes fill with tears when her treasure was taken away and called  _useless_ , but she bravely tried to hold them back and left the classroom without another word. She hurried to the school's kiosk and bought some food for the other girls, hoping it would be enough for them to give Aoko back to her, and then returned to the classroom.

"Ah, you were fast," one of the girls said, sighing. "Get over here."

Biting her lip, Rika obeyed. She handed the girl the plastic bag with the food and the three girls examined it. "That's good enough, considering that it's your first time." The leader threw Aoko in Rika's direction and Rika quickly moved to catch it, holding onto the plushie tightly.

"Will you... give me back the money I spent for your food?"

That question caused the girls to break into laughter. They clapped their hands, apparently unable to hold back their amusement. "You're such an idiot! Of course we're not giving you the money back—don't you know how things work here?"

Rika's head dropped a little as the girls kept mocking her.  _At least I have Aoko back_ , she told herself, trying to keep thinking at least a little positively.  _I have Aoko back, so even if I don't get the money back, it's fine_. It wasn't fine because her family didn't have much money anyways, but Rika forced herself not to think of that.

* * *

 

During the next weeks, the girls kept bullying Rika. They'd quickly realized that by taking Aoko away, they could get her to do nearly anything for them, so they made full use of that situation. They made her buy more food for them and beat her up when she didn't manage to do what they told her to.

Rika tried to be strong. She never tried to fight the girls because she hadn't come to this school to hurt anyone (and besides, there were three of them and she was alone—even if she'd been capable of fighting back, they would still have been three times as strong as her), and she tried not to cry while she was at school. When her parents wanted to know why she was asking them for more money again, Rika always replied that the lunch she bought at school was more expensive than at her previous school and then broke down crying once she was all alone in her room. Her precious plushies Aoko and Karaage were the only ones she told about her real feelings.

One day, Rika was just coming back from the kiosk with the food for her bullies when she heard a loud voice from their classroom. "Listen, I know that what you're doing is what a yankee does, but can't you tell that  _she_  doesn't know?!" It was their classmate Moriya Akane, a very pretty but hot-blooded girl. She had quickly gotten famous for immediately beating up anyone who only dared to look at her, and from both the meaning of her name and the blood that often tainted her hands, other students had given her the nickname  _Red_. (Surprisingly enough, Rika was one of the very few people Akane had not beaten up yet, although she had even bumped into her on their first day of school.)

Having no idea who the  _she_  Akane had mentioned was, Rika decided to hide in the doorframe of the room in order not to come under Akane's fire. As soon as she could properly look into the classroom, her eyes widened.

Moriya Akane was standing in front of Rika's bullies all by herself, her arms folded in front of her chest, and she was giving them an angry glare like Rika had never seen one before. "Leave Watanabe alone," she ordered.

The other girls laughed. "Oh, and what will you do to make us stop?"

Akane unceremoniously raised one leg and kicked one of the girls in the stomach, hard. "Any other questions?" she asked coldly.

And then, the other two girls came at her. Rika felt like she was watching an action movie; the way Akane moved was much swifter and more agile than Rika had ever seen someone move before, and Akane's punches were incredibly strong. It only took the brown-haired girl a few minutes to beat up Rika's bullies; then, she leaned down to pick up their bags and empty them. When she found Aoko in one of the bags, she took the plushie and walked over to Rika. "Here you go; I knew you were watching us."

Her eyes still wide, Rika took Aoko and hugged the stuffed animal tightly. But even now that she had her treasure back, she was unable to take her eyes off Akane—her  _savior_ , a small voice in her mind called the other girl. "Moriya-san... thank you."

Akane gave her a small smile; the first one Rika ever saw on her face. "No need to thank me." She was about to leave the room when Rika spoke up again.

"Wait... I'll become strong so I can repay you someday, okay?" Her voice was as quiet as always, but full of determination.

Akane's smile turned into a smirk. "Sure. But until you're strong enough for that, you can be my underling, Watanabe."

Rika's eyes widened; a happy smile spread on her lips. "Thank you, Moriya-san." From now on, she was sure her high school life could only get better.


	3. 1 (Student Council)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place around the same time as the ending of "1 (Watanabe Rika)".

A few weeks after the beginning of their first year at Majisuka Gakuen, Sugai Yuuka was working in the Student Council room, together with her classmate Yonetani Nanami. The two of them were the only ones there because the other Student Council members (even the President) had decided to take the day off their duties.

Yuuka and Yone were the only first-years in the Student Council, but they had quickly found out that they were by far the most hard-working members. The others were mostly third-years and a few second-years, all of whom seemed to have given up on establishing rules in this school long ago.

A sigh left Yuuka's lips as she placed a folder aside. "I'm done here. How about you, Yone-san?"

Yone showed her a thumbs-up. "I'm done, too. Seems like we can present the drafts for the new rules to the President within this week."

Yuuka nodded, a small smile spreading on her lips. "You're right. We'll finally bring some peace and order to this school."

The two of them started packing their belongings and left the Student Council room. It was then that they heard a loud yell, accompanied by the sound of a person crashing into a wall.

Her eyes widening, Yuuka hurried ahead to the room where she'd heard the sound from—only to find her classmate Moriya Akane looming above three other girls threateningly. "Leave Watanabe alone." Yuuka watched her empty the girls' bags and give a blue stuffed animal to Watanabe Rika. The two of them talked quietly for a moment, then Akane headed to the door of the classroom to leave.

Yuuka decided to take that chance and stepped in Akane's way. "Moriya-san!"

Akane's eyes narrowed dangerously, the smile she'd given Rika earlier had vanished as if someone had wiped it off her face. "What do you want, Sugai?"

Yuuka sighed quietly about the lack of respect in the way Akane was talking to her. "It's admirable that you helped Watanabe-san out, but you shouldn't have beaten up those girls..."

"Hah?!" Akane interrupted her, anger clearly audible in her voice. "You can't tell me what to do. This is a yankee school after all,  _princess_."

"Please, Moriya-san, we can make this school a better place if you—"

Akane let out a loud laugh. "You don't seriously believe that, do you? The school is fine as it is." She was about to leave, but then turned around to Yuuka once more. "Actually, let me tell you something."

And then, Yuuka's face exploded in pain when Akane punched her. She stumbled a step back, whimpering. "M-Moriya-san..."

"I'm not interested in your stupid plan," Akane repeated and left the classroom.

Yuuka was holding her aching cheek, tears filling her eyes slowly. So far, the other students had stayed away from her because they knew that her family had a lot of influence, so they figured that if they hurt her, they'd seriously get in trouble. That was why Akane had been the first student to ever hurt Yuuka.

Akane's punch had made Yuuka understand that realizing her plan was not going to be as easy as she'd thought. Without her realizing it, the tears had already started running down Yuuka's cheeks, and when Yuuka's focus returned to reality, she found a fidgeting Watanabe Rika standing next to her.

"Sugai-san..." the older girl muttered shyly, not exactly knowing what to do. "Are you okay...?"

Yuuka quickly wiped her tears away and nodded. "Y-yes, I'm fine. Say, Watanabe-san... do you agree with Moriya-san?"

Rika tilted her head to the side, thinking about the question for a moment. Then she shook her head. "...but she helped me. She's the first one who was nice to me." Even though she didn't like fighting, it was clear to her that actively disagreeing with Akane was not an option.

A slightly helpless smile spread on Yuuka's lips. "I see. I suppose I can understand what you mean. Still, if you ever need help from the Student Council, or if you happen to feel like joining us, you're welcome to do so."

Rika smiled and nodded. "You're nice, too, Sugai-san." With that, she waved at Yuuka and left the classroom.

Yuuka stayed where she was for a moment longer, taking a deep breath and trying to wipe away the remainders of her tears, before rejoining Yone in the hallway.

"Sugai-san!" Yone exclaimed upon seeing the bruise on Yuuka's cheek and her eyes that were still a bit red from crying. "What happened?"

Yuuka managed a wry smile. "I realized that realizing out plan won't be as easy as we thought."

Even though she had asked the question in the first place, Yone had barely listened to Yuuka's reply. Instead, she gestured in the direction of the Student Council room. "You should take care of that bruise, Sugai-san... there should be a cooling pack you can use—"

Yuuka nodded slowly. "Thank you, Yone-san."

Yone gave her a small smile and an encouraging nod. "We have to stick together, after all, right?"

* * *

 

A few days passed during which Yuuka decided to avoid Akane. She greeted Rika whenever they met and sometimes even talked to her, wanting to make sure that the other girl felt comfortable because until now, she'd been so immersed in her Student Council work that she had barely noticed how bad Rika had probably felt. From a safe distance, Yuuka watched the two of them during class.

Their relationship occasionally seemed somewhat rocky because Akane sometimes ordered Rika around (which, Yuuka thought, probably came simply from the fact that she was a yankee; maybe she didn't even have any bad intentions), but Rika always looked happy when she was with Akane; she was trying hard to be of use to the stronger girl, even if it was only by carrying Akane's bag for her. And in return, Akane's presence alone was enough to keep any bullies far from Rika—and if that for once didn't work out, Akane's fists added another reason for everyone to leave Rika alone.

Yuuka was glad that Rika still didn't seem to change her opinion about fighting. Even when she was tagging along with Akane during their breaks, Rika always apologized when Akane had beaten someone up again (which, on the other hand, only became another reason for people to laugh at her).

But although she was keeping an eye on Akane, Yuuka had her own worries, as well. On the day after the incident with Akane, Yuuka and Yone had submitted the drafts for the new rules they wanted to enforce at school to the Student Council President, and the President had simply ripped the paper they'd written in half and held it out for them to take it back. "Do whatever you want," she'd yawned. "It's not like anyone will listen to you, but if you can't believe that, just give it a try."

After that incident, Yuuka had complained about the other Student Council members to her best friend Habu Mizuho, who had basically enrolled in Majisuka Gakuen out of sympathy for her long-time friend. "There simply aren't enough hard-working members in the Student Council. I think if there were more people thinking like Yone-san and me, we'd have a much easier time getting the other students to follow our rules."

Habu, who had heard this talk at least ten times since Yuuka had joined the Student Council, sighed in a good-natured way. "Fine, fine," the tall girl said, smiling softly. "It's not like I have anything else to do in this school anyways, so I'll join the Student Council, too. How does that sound?"

A wide smile spread on Yuuka's lips and she hugged her friend. "Thank you, Habu-chan."

Since then, a few more days had passed, Habu had already submitted her request to join the Student Council to the President, and now, Yuuka felt confident enough to tell the other students about the new rules she wanted to enforce. After all, the Student Council President had told her to do what she wanted.

Yuuka and Yone were standing on the stairs that led to the club room of the Wind Instrument Club where Rappappa had their headquarters. These stairs were feared by everyone, nearly nobody dared to climb them, but everyone walked past them at least once a day, so Yuuka had figured they'd be a good spot to talk to all the students.

"I'm Sugai Yuuka from the Student Council," she spoke up loudly, trying to get the yankees to listen to her. Some just scoffed and left without even listening to her, but from her peripheral vision, Yuuka saw Akane leaning against the door of one of the nearby classrooms. Feeling slightly encouraged by that sight because she thought Akane had changed her mind, Yuuka continued talking. "And this is Yonetani Nanami. We're here to explain the new rules that are going to be established at this school soon."

"Rules? We're yankees, we don't need rules!" someone yelled, followed by affirmative murmurs.

Yuuka took a deep breath. "I'm not saying y-you have to stop being yankees," she said, stumbling over the words slightly because after hearing that flat-out refusal of acknowledgement from the yankees, she started feeling more nervous. "Just, maybe, stop fighting at school, please. I-I was thinking of starting off with a rule that says you can't get into any fights until lunch break starts..."

They could head a loud bang when Akane slammed her fist against the door she'd been leaning against. "Hey, Sugai," she spoke up, ignoring the fact that Rika had seemed to be listening quite curiously. "I thought we just had this talk a few days ago. Do you really need me to teach you another lesson?"

"Moriya-san," Yone spoke up, taking a step forward. "You should—"

"Shut up, I'm not talking to you." The other yankees moved to make space for Akane as the girl approached Yuuka. "I told you, Sugai, we don't need rules."

But Yuuka wasn't willing to give up just yet. "Please just give it a try. Everything will be more peaceful and more enjoyable if you stop fighting—" A groan of pain left her lips when Akane punched her hard. Yuuka felt tears gathering in her eyes again as she fell silent, her groan drowned out by the mocking yells of the yankees.

Akane grabbed Yuuka's collar and pulled her closer until they could see right into each other's eyes. "Just give up already," the yankee hissed before pushing Yuuka away, making her stumble back against the wall next to the stairs. "If you want a school that has rules, go to one of those stupid private schools for the rich. And don't even think about making an announcement like this again before you can speak properly."

Behind Akane, the other yankees broke into roaring laughter at how miserable Yuuka suddenly looked. Yuuka bit her lip and remained silent, but when Akane turned away to leave, Yuuka grabbed her by her collar.

"I'm not going to give up," she said, her voice shaking slightly. Then, she clenched her hand to a fist and punched Akane.

The other girl simply stared at her in surprise. Then, she pushed Yuuka away with a laugh. "I didn't even feel that. You'll need to get a lot stronger if you want to have a chance against me." With that, she turned away and left, and this time nobody dared to stop her.

Yuuka stared after her, chewing on her lip in an attempt to keep herself from crying.

"I'm sorry," she heard a quiet voice—Watanabe Rika was suddenly standing next to her, bowing slightly. "Moriya-san doesn't listen to me when I ask her to stop."

Yuuka forced a small smile onto her lips. "Don't worry, it's fine, Watanabe-san. I shouldn't have expected anything else."

Rika opened her bag and rummaged through it for a moment before offering Yuuka a bread. "Here, take this."

"Are you sure?" The answer was a decisive nod from Rika, so Yuuka took the bread and took a bite from it. "Oh, it's delicious."

A smile spread on Rika's lips; then she bowed and excused herself.

Once she was gone, a heavy sigh left Yuuka's lips. This was going to be some hard work.


End file.
